Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations meets in Aarhus

Preparations for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games came under the spotlight as the Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations (AIOWF) chaired by FIS President Gian Franco Kasper met during the SportAccord Convention.

The Games do not take place until February 2018, but as AIOWF Members held their last General Assembly before the event, they received thorough briefings from key partners, including the Local Organising Committee, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

“PyeongChang 2018 is only ten months aways and the next Games in the programme, so this was a very important presentation from POCOG and it was clear there is good interaction between the IFs and the Organising Committee,” FIS Secretary General and Secretary General of AIOWF, Sarah Lewis, said.

“All of the IFs have now held their key test events over the past two seasons and the next phase will be the final roll-out and we are all working very closely with the Organisers.”

AIOWF also received an update from CAS about its procedures for dealing with any doping cases that could arise at PyeongChang 2018 through the CAS Anti-Doping Division. In addition, Members heard from Sir Craig Reedie, President of WADA, as he provided an update on measures being taken to deal with the issues that have emerged over the past year, as well as WADA’s future plans and projects.

The meeting also heard from the Organising Committees responsible for the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne (SUI) and the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing (CHN). The AIOWF General Assembly was followed by the annual joint meeting with the International Olympic Committee on topics including PyeongChang 2018 preparations, Games sustainability, ethics and compliance.

Today, 5th April, AIOWF held a joint Councils meeting with the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF). Points addressed in this meeting included IF governance, the fight against doping and the Olympic Movement Sports Data Project.